At the time of writing this Israel and Gaza have declared a ceasefire. By the time this article has been published this may no longer be the case. Already there are reports on Twitter that rockets are being fired out of Gaza. How long the ceasefire will last, we do not know. However, unless further steps are taken both groups will be at war again soon.

On the 20th peace talks were held in Egypt, with the press saying that a truce deal was to be announced later that day. That time never came however. Talks were resumed on the 21st and it was announced by Hilary Clinton and Mohamed Morsi. Following the announcement there were celebration’s in Gaza, where civilians are celebrating surviving the conflict. While in Israel there were protests with Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to agree to a ceasefire proving to be very unpopular.

While a ceasefire has been called by both sides, it is not be enough. This is simply a calm in the fighting while both parties attempt to reach a longer agreement. Until such an agreement could be reached any ceasefire will be short lived and it is likely we will soon find ourselves in exactly the same position again.

What is needed now is a way to stop this completely. No half measures.

Simply agreeing to a ceasefire and hoping that this time it lasts will not work. For a few years, maybe more, the peace would last, the amount of rockets fired by both sides would die down, for a while. But all that would happen is that both sides would quietly lick their wounds and restock their armories. Then another event would stoke the embers and cause all the old tension and anger to rise up again. Then we would find ourselves in the exact same position yet again.

Hamas have been firing rockets at Israel for over 10 years. The Israel Defense Forces has entered Gaza already with Operations Summer Rains and Cast Lead. If, like last time a ceasefire is announced, and nothing more, then both these things will happen again. These two groups are locked in a perpetual war that can only fully end if one of them was to be totally destroyed, or if they were to compromise and sort out their disputes over the region.

Which way would we rather the endless fighting end? With the destruction of Hamas or Israel? Obviously this way would result in many more people dying, soldiers and civilians. It would also take a very long time to happen. Already this war has gone on for years with no end in sight. Hamas are not strong enough to wipe out Israel, much as they might wish to. While Israel have the military strength to wipe out Hamas, they can not do so without angering the international community and possibly dragging other countries into the conflict.

But if an agreement could be made where both groups were happy, perhaps if Jerusalem was to be made an International city, with independent Jewish and Arab states established like was proposed many years ago. Then finally this war between Hamas and Israel could end properly, rather than endlessly going on punctuated with the occasional short lived ceasefire.

Image Courtesy : Rostislav Glinsky / Shutterstock.com

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New York, U.S.A. — The International organization representing Jewish communities in 100 countries, the World Jewish Congress (WJC) President Ronald S. Lauder has condemned the murderous terror attack in which six Israeli tourists and the Bulgarian bus driver were killed when one of three buses carrying mostly Israeli men, women and children was blown up outside the airport of Burgas, Bulgaria.

“It is no coincidence that this assault comes 18 years to the day since the Iranian regime sponsored attack against the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires took the lives of 85 innocent victims,” Lauder said. The current Iranian Defense Minister, Ahmed Vahidi, was indicted by Argentinian authorities, and is currently sought by Interpol.

“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s comments regarding the Iranian regime’s involvement in this deadly attack reminds the world of the role Iran, and the terrorist groups it supports, play in global terrorism,” Lauder said.

The World Jewish Congress also salutes Israeli businessman Nochi Dankner for immediately dispatching a private plane with doctors and medical supplies to Burgas to treat the victims of this murderous assault.

In the Burgan attack that took place on 18 July 2012, seven people were killed and at least thirty-two injured in an explosion on an Israeli-operated tour bus at the Burgas Airport in the Black Sea resort of Burgas, a city of some 200,000 people and approximately 400 kilometers (250 miles) east of the capital, Sofia.

According to the initial reports of Bulgarian authorities, the blast was caused by a bomb in a luggage compartment. However, later it was argued by a Bulgarian official that the blast was probably carried out by a male suicide bomber with fake US documents. Bulgarian Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov stated that the suspected attacker is seen on security camera tape near the bus for about an hour before the blast and that he had a fake driver’s license from the U.S. state of Michigan. The suspected attacker was described as a white male with long hair and wearing glasses.

Image Courtesy of   World Jewish Congress

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New York, U.S.A. — AJC called on the Knesset to censure one of its members for desecrating the Christian Bible.

MK Michael Ben-Ari of the National Union Party, in his Knesset office, tore pages from the New Testament as he condemned the Christian holy book for fostering anti-Semitism.

“MK Ben-Ari’s extremist views and actions are outrageous,” said AJC Executive Director David Harris. “The photograph of MK Ben-Ari tearing up the Christian Bible, holy to many around the world, is a sacrilegious outrage, an abominable assault on an entire religion.”

Ben-Ari has a long record of open hostility towards Israel’s Arab citizens, and has been barred from visiting the U.S., his country of birth, due to his association with the extremist Kach movement, banned in Israel. The Kach party was banned in Israel after a law was passed that stated political parties who incited racism could not be elected to office. Today the party is considered a terrorist organization in Israel, Canada, the United States, and the European Union.

Harris, praising today’s remarks by Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin, and by Mark Regev, spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, urged other Israeli leaders to speak out and take appropriate action against Ben-Ari.

“I condemn all disrespect of holy writings, including the tearing of the New Testament by an MK last night. Imagine a foreign parliament member tore the bible, relating to it as a provocation,” Rivlin said at today’s Knesset session in Jerusalem. “Democracy means freedom of speech but not freedom to disrespect other religions. A foundation of the state is freedom of worship and belief.”

Speaking for the Israeli government, Regev said, “We totally deplore this behavior and condemn it outright. This action stands in complete contrast to our values and our traditions. Israel is a tolerant society, but we have zero tolerance for this despicable and hateful act.”

Image Courtesy of   ygurvitz

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Israel has begun an “emergency plan” to battle its illegal immigration problems that will involve interning and deporting thousands. So far authorities have arrested sixty-two African migrants in on-going raids. Most of the migrants are from South Sudan, with some from the Darfur region. The government hopes to repatriate 60,000 African refugees. The immigrants are being detained at the Red Sea resort of Eilat.

After two months of heated debate, the Israeli government has declared that the African migrants have become a threat to the Jewish character of the state and that they are here illegally. Many illegal immigrants have also caused problems with labor and work, similar to those in the United States.

The main area being targeted for removing these African refugees is in the poor area to the south of Tel Aviv. Israelis living in the south of Tel Aviv claim that the wealthy northern residents of Tel Aviv can afford to be liberal and support the plight of the African refugee because their jobs are not being threatened by these Africans.

The decision has also arisen after a wave of hostility has arisen against blacks in general. A recent opinion poll in Israel showed that fifty-two percent of Israelis think that Africans are a “cancer” according to the Times of Israel. According to Jacob Berri, a Sudanese refugee at a protest, the refugees are “being called a cancer and an AIDS virus on the Israeli people, by politicians.” Berri claims that many in the South Sudanese community recognize they are not wanted and will leave as long as they are guaranteed refugee status and are helped by the UN.

African migrants marched on Sunday to the UN Refugee Agency offices in Tel Aviv to protest the mistreatment of refugees. Several protests have occurred due to these decisions including one with five hundred Sudanese men. These men chanted “we are refugees, not criminals” due to allegations that Africans are preying on Israeli citizens and raping Israeli women.

The rhetoric used against these immigrants suggests some personal bias. Interior Minister Eli Yishai stated, “this is only a small group of infiltrators…I’m not acting out of hatred of strangers but love of my people and to rescue my homeland.” According to Reuters, “infiltrators” is the the same word often used to describe Palestinian militants.

Many Israelis are worried that the deportations could damage Israel’s international image; in previous years, Israel was considered a champion of human rights and protector of these African refugees. Israeli human rights and activist groups are on the side of the African refugees, whereas the right wing and certain religious parties are against them.

Some of these refugees have lived in Israel for years – some of their children only know of Israel as home and only speak Hebrew – but these individuals have lived in legal limbo for too long.

An Israeli court upheld the government’s decision of internment and deportation of all migrants of South Sudanese origin. The government and courts agree that although South Sudan is still at war with Sudan, the region is safe enough for the refugees to return. The government has also claimed that all of the immigrants are in Israel looking for work when many are there to escape persecution and violence. Israeli activists have urged the government to consider each case individually rather than indiscriminately sending people back.

The Israeli government has offered financial incentives to all of those who leave voluntarily. Since many refugees recognize that their deportations are inevitable, they have begun registering to leave. The Interior Minister Eli Yishai has claimed, “whoever comes forward will get his grant…from the moment you come to immigration authorities and say you will pack up, from that moment you will be given an opportunity to pack up, and the grant of 1,000 euros.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is completely behind the new immigration policy, although he has urged Israelis to not harm the African refugees. Netanyahu claimed, “we are a moral people and we will act accordingly. We denounce violence; we denounce invective. We respect human rights…[but] Israel cannot accept infiltrators from an entire continent.”

According to Reuters, migration into Israel from Africa has been increasing since 2006, but the past year has seen an incredible increase in the number of refugees. The revolution in Egypt has prevented the Egyptian government from policing the border of the Sinai peninsula which has allowed the Bedouin people-smugglers to increase their operations.

In response to these high levels of immigration, Israel has built a high fence along its border to Egypt. Netanyahu said in a May 29th speech, “my policy with regard to the illegal infiltrators seeking work is clear… first of all, to stop their entry with the fence and at the same time to deport the infiltrators who are in Israel.” Netanyahu also claimed that in transition the African refugees would be held in “detention facilities with thousands of units.” The prime minister justified his actions by claiming that these migrants are threatening “the character of the country.”

Image Courtesy of  John Kropewnicki / Shutterstock.com

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As talks in Amman, Jordan continue, Christians for Fair Witness on the Middle East urges Israel and the Palestinian Authority to summon historic political courage and take the steps that are necessary to return to direct peace talks and the successful negotiation of a final status peace agreement.  On the Israeli side, this would include freezing settlement construction on the West Bank.

“The status quo is not neutral,” according to Rev. Dr. Peter A. Pettit, of Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA and Fair Witness Executive Committee member.  “It eats away at the dignity and hope that must ground a peace agreement.  Therefore, we strongly urge Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to refrain from continued settlement building.

We also strongly urge Palestinian President Abbas to engage in direct peace talks without pre-conditions, as the Quartet has proposed, and Israel has agreed.  That is the only way to reach a final status agreement and peace.”

“Both Palestinians and Israelis continue to suffer while their respective leadership appears locked in a ‘lose-lose’ pattern of obstinacy,” lamented Rev. Dr. Bruce Chilton, Bernard Iddings Bell Professor of Religion at Bard College and Fair Witness Executive Committee member.   Rev. Chilton added that “continued Israeli settlement building creates facts on the ground while peace talks are delayed.

However, the Palestinian refusal to engage in direct negotiations without a settlement freeze is equally unhelpful.  The way to stop settlement building is to create a mutually agreed upon border.  And that cannot happen until the parties sit down and negotiate.”

“As the New Year begins, we bring the message of peace and goodwill to all people,” says Rev. Pettit.  “We pray especially that peace will finally come to the people of Palestine and Israel.”

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On Tuesday October 18th Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit has been released after more than five years of captivity.

In return of his release Hamas demanded the liberation of 1,027 Palestinians prisoners held in Israeli jails, 477 were released simultaneously to Shalit, another 550 are planned to be set free in the next two months.

The 25-years-old soldier was abducted in June 2006 – when he was only 19 – by Hamas militants in Gaza. Israel had to admit there was no way to rescue him in a military operation, and it had to surrender and agree to the prisoner exchange put forward by Hamas.

Egypt worked as mediator for the exchange negotiation given that Israel and Hamas have no relations and do not talk directly to each other. Right after the very first group of Palestinian prisoners were released, Shalit was brought through Rafah border terminal into Egypt, where the Israeli medical personnel examinated him and checked his health conditions.

Later, he was brought to an Israeli military base along the Egypt border, boarded on a helicopter and flown to Israel while the rest of the Palestinian prisoners were being freed in Gaza and West Bank finalizing in this way the exchange.

Shalit appeared to be in good health, thin, pale and tired, just suffering from small shrapnel injuries that had been treated not properly.

Only few minutes after Hamas militants released him, he was interviewed by Egyptian TV journalist Shahira Amin and he told: “I missed my family. I missed going out and meeting people. I hope this deal will move the peace process forward.” This interview was strongly criticized by Israeli officials who say the questioning was inappropriate and insensitive.

Hundreds of chanting people on the streets greeted the young soldier, waving Israeli flags, laying out white roses, and hanging banners. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu welcomed Shalit and vowed:  “We will continue to fight terror. Every terrorist who returns to terror will have a price on his head.” “Gilad has returned home and is back with his family, his people and his country”,  he added.

After re-embracing his son after five years of absence, Noam Shalit, Gilad’s father, told to Israeli television reporters: “It’s the happiest day of my life”.

“We can say that we have experienced the rebirth of a son”, he added. “Gilad has come home after an exhausting and long struggle. As I have said quite often, we were told that we were tilting at windmills. It was exhausting, but ultimately we managed to bring him home. As you have seen today he came home and walked up the steps that he left, and has come home, went through the door that he left so many days ago, 1,942 days ago.”

“He basically came out of a dark hole, in a dark basement, and came out of that to a great crowd. I’m sure that this was an amazing experience for him when he arrived here at our village to see all of this going on.”

While Israel is celebrating for Shalit, also in Gaza people are celebrating for Palestinian prisoner’s release. Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniya welcomed the freed detainees and Palestinian leaders have declared Wednesday a holiday for all government institutions, Hamas-run Al-Aqsa television reported.

It sounds weird and almost unreal that these two countries historically enemies could celebrate and rejoice simultaneously. Trying to understand why Israel accepted to release more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange of only one Israeli soldier, it will be interesting to see what will be the future of the relationships between the two countries.

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In the much-anticipated speech to the state department, President Obama stated that a “mutually agreed swaps” would help create a “viable Palestine, and secure Israel.” He later insisted in an interview with the BBC that the ‘1967 border’ had to be the basis for negotiations on a Palestinian State.

Within a day of the President’s speech, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu expressed his governments displeasure about Obama’s views. According to Netanyahu, the borders before the 1967 Middle East conflict were “indefensible”, considering that Israel has constructed an extensive network of settlements beyond those lines. An estimated 300,000 Israelis live in the settlements of the West bank, even though these are illegal under international law, a fact which Israel disputes.

In Thursday’s speech, Mr Obama spoke about the Arab Spring and what this meant for US role in the region. The American president praised the recent developments stating “through the moral force of non-violence, the people of the region have achieved more change in six months than terrorists have accomplish in decades.” He acknowledged that the rest of the world had to be patient because change would take years to be constructively implemented. Obama also spoke about the future of US policy to the Middle East, and went into a murky description of the link between US interest and the hopes and desired of the region. When he reached the issue of the continuous conflict between Israel and the Palestinian territory, the President said “The United States believes that negotiations should result in two states, with permanent Palestinian borders with Israel, Jordan, and Egypt, and permanent Israeli borders with Palestine.”

“The borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps, so that secure and recognized borders are established for both states.”

The Israeli Prime Minister, who is due to meet President Obama for talk at the White House Friday, said that the 1967 border would leave major Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria outside Israeli territory. In a statement, the Prime Minister rejected the idea and said “the viability of a Palestinian state cannot come at the expense of the viability of the one and only Jewish state.”

In the statement, Netanyahu called on Mr Obama to reaffirm commitments made to Israel in 2004.

The speech to the state department was far less inspirational than that in Cairo two years ago, according to Jon Leyne of the BBC. Mr Obama summed up an encouraging and poised, yet awkwardly restrained US position towards the flood of democratic momentum in the Middle East and North African region. He said that in the past, the US had accepted the status quo but has now seen a chance to pursue the world as it should be.

Observers, however, are skeptical. How does the President intend to carry out his ideas for a ‘better’ regional situation? With Netanyahu’s blunt rejection of the 1967 borders in what could have been a constructive move in the otherwise stoic conflict, negotiations could already be deterred from moving forward.

The greater realisation is that the Arab Spring could indicate the decline of American influence in the region. As the President himself acknowledged, it was not the US who pushed the people into the street, and his government will have to accept that not all of the nations in revolt will choose to follow the form of democracy that America promotes.

Obama’s best guess is that Israel eventually will soften up on their demands and their deep-rooted objections to a Palestinian state. The unity deal signed between rival Palestinian groups Hamas and Fatah earlier this month – along with Mahmoud Abbas’ call for UN recognition – could provide the needed international pressure to revive talks between the two authorities. Until then, Obama can only hope he’s on the right side of history.

Image provided by The National Academy of Sciences

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The Israeli military has confirmed on Wednesday that Col Vadim Leiderman, military attache in Russia, was expelled by the Russian government on accusations of espionage. According to the BBC, a joint statement by Israel’s defense ministry and the military spokesman’s office read that “The [Israeli Defense Forces] military attache and ministry of defense representative in Russia, an IDF colonel, was detained for investigation last week by Russian authorities on suspicion of spying.”

The Russian government have yet to confirm the accusations but the Israeli army, which have investigated the claims, believe they are unfounded. Israeli media reported that Col Leiderman had been taken into detention 10 days ago and questioned on suspicion of espionage but after claiming diplomatic immunity, the IDF colonel was given 48 hours to leave the country. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz told the BBC that there had been a gagging order on the matter until Wednesday evening.

Israel is said to be going through a turbulent time amid the Arab spring and chilly relations with the country’s number one ally, the US. This week, the diplomatic wheels will once more start turning over the question of the Palestinian State as the Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu is flying to Washington in a pre-empted effort to contain the ‘diplomatic tsunami’ expected to hit Israel in September. On Tuesday, the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urged the international community to recognize a Palestinian State at the UN Assembly this autumn, stating in an opinion piece from the New York Times that Palestinians “cannot wait indefinitely” for a state of their own.

“Palestine’s admission to the United Nations would pave the way for the internationalization of the conflict as a legal matter, not only a political one,” the Palestinian leader explained. When the UN General Assembly meets in September, their recognition would enable Palestine to negotiate “from the position of one United Nations member whose territory is military occupied by another [...] and not as a vanquished people ready to accept whatever terms are put in front of us,” he added.

According to The Guardian, the ice between Israel and their long-time ally has been the result of President Obama and his policy of reaching out to Arab and Muslim communities around the world. Netanyahu and his government has viewed this move as “selling Israel out”, a situation which has left the Jewish state troubled by what the future may bring.

Besides worrying about regional revolt, the crumpling support of Arab allies and the development of neighboring nuclear programs – Israel’s latest concern regarding Russia’s nuclear cooperation with Iran and arms sales to Syria could have resulted in their defense representative poking his nose a little too deep into the Russian ‘borcsh’.

The Israeli military has states that “thorough investigation” has cleared colonel Leiderman of passing sensitive information to Israel. So far, Moscow has made no official statement.

Image provided by p-and-h

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